by Katee Robert
He blinks those big blue eyes at me. “What?” He has the audacity to sound hurt, and I hate that I want to smooth his pain away at the expense of my own. He’s an adult, and his actions have consequences just like the rest of us.
“I’ll have someone drop off the files. Study them like your life depends on it. It might.” When he doesn’t immediately move, I dig my nails into my palms, striving to keep my growing emotional bullshit out of my voice. “Hercules. Please leave.”
He studies me for a long moment and finally nods. “I’ll fix this.”
I don’t ask what he means. In the end, it won’t matter. “Some things aren’t capable of being fixed. The faster you figure that out, the faster you’ll get ahead in life.”
Chapter 16
Hercules
I’m half expecting Tink when someone knocks a little while after I return to my suite, but when I open the door, it’s a striking Black woman with a mass of braids piled on her head. She sweeps a look over me and shrugs. “You’re pretty, but I don’t think you’re pretty enough to be causing all this drama.”
“Thanks?”
“It wasn’t a compliment.” She shoves a laptop at me. “Don’t take this out of your room. The sensitive material on it can’t leave the property. I don’t think I have to tell you what will happen if you try something.”
Nothing good. So far, nothing about this situation has gone like I expected, but I don’t think for a second that Hades would allow me to pass on privileged information without recourse. I don’t know what kind of recourse, but it doesn’t matter. I have no intention of sharing it. Even if I did, I have no one to share it with. “I’ll keep it in my room.”
“Glad we got that sorted.” She points at herself. “Allecto. I run security. You have any problems, you come to me or one of my people. You become a problem, I deal with you. Got it?”
“Got it,” I say faintly. Tink had mentioned security, but because I wasn’t currently allowed into the back rooms of the club where the intense play went on, I had put it from my mind until later. It was enough to know that Hades protects his people.
“Then we shouldn’t have any issues.” She frowned at me. “Don’t know what he was thinking bringing you in.” She shook her head and walked away.
I step back into my suite and close the door. Allecto’s thoughts aren’t anything that haven’t been echoed back to me by multiple people since I arrived here. I get it. I don’t fit in. I have to be trained from the ground up in a way that none of the other employees seem to require. It didn’t make sense before, the reason why Hades would drag me into a lifetime deal. Now that I have some distance—now that I know it’s because of Zeus—I understand it a whole lot better.
Seems fitting that I should suffer for the sins of my father. Seems almost like penance after how things fell out with Leda. I couldn’t save her, couldn’t stand up to him no matter how hard I tried. If there were others…
I stalk to the couch and drop the laptop there. Of course there were others. My father has hardly been a paragon of virtue, only to break character with Leda. There were others. There must have been.
Thirty years ago, one of the victims of my father’s sadistic nature was apparently Hades’s son.
I wish I knew more. What happened in that situation. What happened in the wake of it. Did Zeus kill him? The thought makes me sick to my stomach. I wish I could rule out my father being a murderer, but he’s a rapist and has no problem committing assault. Why not murder as well? Would knowing the truth even matter? As Hades said, it happened before I was even born. It has nothing to do with me.
Until now.
Then there’s Meg. It’s obvious Hades didn’t tell her his reasoning or his plans, and the fact that I knew even part of it hurt her. She covered her reaction up quickly, but I saw it all the same. I had assumptions about those two when I first came here and now, less than forty-eight hours in, I’m having to question all of them. They present a united front, but the closer I get, the more the cracks in their relationship start looking like canyons. It’s none of my business. I should know by now to stay out of shit that doesn’t concern me.
But when I stood between them, things felt more stable, like I was fixing something broken. It might be all in my head, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something there beneath the games and bullshit and plotting. Or there could be if we gave it a chance. Maybe. I don’t have answers now, and I likely won’t anytime soon, not with Meg and Hades’s respective walls built sky-high. Tormenting myself by playing what-if is a recipe for disaster.
To distract myself, I open the laptop and turn it on. Tonight will be another gauntlet to run, and knowledge is the only weapon available to me currently. It won’t pave the way for me to have the upper hand—I’m not delusional—but it might mean I don’t drown quite as quickly when faced with something outside my realm of experience.
The desktop is clear except for a line of six folders. I click through the first and find five more folders labeled Gaeton, Malone, Hook, Beast, the Man in Black. I blink. These must be pseudonyms. I click into the first one and find a list of Gaeton’s alliances and enemies—he answers to the Man in Black and has a note that he and Beast can’t be left alone together in the club without concern for damages to the property. There’s also a brief history and a list of kinks and favorite submissives. I click through more files, finding similar information compiled in each. Some of them are significantly longer than others, but it’s a lot of information to process.
I sit back. No wonder Hades is so formidable. He knows the secrets of all the major players in this city. Knowledge worth killing over and they had passed it along willingly because he’s allowing them to play out their deepest fantasies within these walls. It’s brilliant.
I manage a nap and wake up with plenty of time to shower again and grab something out of my closet for my shift tonight. All the work clothing is in line with the shorts from last night—light on fabric and tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination. I decide on a pair of black shorts that shine like leather but are made of some kind of stretchy fabric. There are little rhinestones in a row down each side and they wink every time I move.
It feels strange to walk mostly naked to the elevator and take it up to the club floor, but I suppose I’ll get used to it given enough time. I walk into the employee back room and the first person I see is Aurora. She’s wearing white again, an elaborate lingerie set that looks like something a bride would wear on her wedding night. She grins when she sees me. “Hey, Hercules.”
“Hey.”
“Since Tink isn’t here tonight, you’re with me for the first part of your shift. Then Meg will take over like last night.”
My stomach clenches at the thought of seeing her again after how things fell out earlier. I have an apology to give, and I’m not even sure how to make it right. I thought I was starting to understand the rules, but with Meg the edges blur. This morning, I didn’t want to stop until I had her bent over the desk and my cock sheathed to the hilt. I wanted to fuck her until she came, until we were so lost in each other that nothing else mattered. But it’s not just us engaged in this dance, and it doesn’t feel like something as simple as breaking the rules to go against Hades’s command.
I don’t know. I just don’t know.
“Hercules?” Aurora takes a step closer. She’s tiny in a way that makes me feel like one wrong move would break her. The look on her face is anything but meek, though. She frowns up at me. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t understand this.” I have to swallow the words before I blurt out everything. What’s going on between Hades and Meg and me is our business, but it feels like they’re playing on a different game board than I am. Like they’re playing an entirely different fucking game. I would ask Tink if she were here, but she’s not. I scrub my hands over my face. “We’re submissives, right?”
“Yes.”
“So a Dom gives you an order.”
Aurora holds u
p a finger. “A couple caveats before you keep going. We don’t answer to all Doms. We answer to ours and the ones we’re in a scene with. That’s it. It’s not a blanket rule.”
Am I Hades’s? It sure as fuck feels like it. But it feels like I’m Meg’s too, and that’s where things get confusing. “Okay. So your Dom gives you an order. Is breaking it really so bad?”
“Every relationship is different. Some subs—like Tink—are brats. They get off on pushing against the boundaries and breaking the rules and mouthing off. The Doms they partner with usually also get off on that sort of thing. That’s not how I operate. It makes me uncomfortable to act out like that.” She shrugs. “Your mileage may vary.”
“That…doesn’t really help.” The deeper I get into this world, the more I’m realizing that there aren’t any hard and fast rules beyond consent of all parties. That’s it. The scope it is staggering if I let myself think too hard about it.
Sympathy flashes in her dark eyes. “Look at it a different way. He gave you an order. You obviously thought about disobeying it, even if you didn’t. What would it feel like if you did go through with it?”
My stomach turns even as my skin heats. I regretted rejecting Meg the second I did it. If I could go back… “Conflicted.”
She smiles. “A lot of this stuff is feeling your way, especially if you’re in something more intense than a single scene. Talk to him about it. Or her. Or whoever. Communication is everything.”
“Thanks.” I manage a smile of my own. “How long have you been working in the Underworld?”
“A little over a year now.” Her expression dims. “Hades helped me out when I needed it the most.”
Another deal on his part, though at least this one appears to have benefited the person working here. I don’t ask her the details of it. Deals seem to be a private thing, and I’m not really willing to go into my reasons either. I take a deep breath. “Should we get out there?”
“Yeah.” She starts for the door. “The others will be along shortly, but we can make the rounds and get drinks started.”
Working with Aurora is as different from working with Tink as day from night. I enjoy her company quite a bit, but I find myself missing Tink’s snark. We fall into a comfortable rhythm of transporting drinks from Tis at the bar to the various customers who filter into the club as the night goes on. I recognize several of the people from the file Allecto delivered, and I try to pay closer attention to them, but before long, the room is packed and it’s everything I can do to keep up with the orders.
I’m firmly in my head as I move to clear a table that’s been abandoned by two women who have gone through the door that leads to the public playroom and the individual themed rooms. Tink dragged me through there on my first day when it was empty, so I’m a little blurry on the actual details, but if this room is where people come to socialize, those rooms are where they come to play.
I turn around and nearly run into a man standing there. For a second, I forget I’m supposed to keep my eyes down and look directly at him. Hook. One of the people Meg and Hades keep a file on. He looks like a fucking pirate. His medium brown skin is broken by a diamond nose piercing and a trio of golden rings circling his upper ears on each side. His long dark hair is pulled back from his face in some kind of ponytail thing and he’s got a perfectly groomed beard that parts as he gives me a wicked smile. I swear his dark eyes actually twinkle at me. “Look what we have here.”
I remember to drop my gaze, which gives me a good look at his tattooed bare chest and the leather pants that are tight enough to leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. “Would you like a drink?”
“Nothing for me.” He reaches out and gives the green ring attached to my collar a gentle tug. I feel it all the way down to my cock. Hook makes a humming noise. “How long until you’re up for grabs?”
My skin goes warm beneath his gaze, and I know I must be blushing a brilliant red. “I don’t know.” It strikes me that Hades might order me to fuck other people the same way he orders Meg to fuck other people. Before coming here, the idea felt foreign and almost repulsive. Now that I’m beginning to understand the parameters and push and pull of their—our—relationship, my feelings are less concrete.
“Guess I’ll have to keep my eye on you then.” He gives me another flash of bright white teeth against his dark beard. “You’re a pretty thing, little sub. And you blush so nicely.” He doesn’t touch me anywhere but the ring, which hardly counts as touching me, but it feels like he’s run his hands all over my body when he uses that tone of voice. It’s disconcerting to say the least. I can’t stop fucking blushing. Hook chuckles, the warm sound somehow making this whole conversation more unbearable in the best way possible. “What’s your name?”
“Hercules.”
He gives the collar one last tug and drops his hand. I note that he’s got three rings on his right hand and another two on his left. “Don’t look now, but you’re about to be rescued from big, bad me.”
That surprises me enough to glance where he jerks his chin. I follow the movement to see the last person I expect to be bearing down on us. “Tink?”
“I told you to stay out of trouble.” She’s wearing a bra, panties, and a garter belt that attaches to thigh-high stockings, all in green. Her heels give her a few extra inches and she uses to them to her advantage to step between me and Hook. “And you. You know better than to terrorize new subbies.”
“Hey, Tink.” He’s still grinning, but his eyes have gone intense with something like hatred. Or lust. I’m not really sure. Hook leans back and makes a show of taking her in. “Long time, no see.”
“Not long enough.” She points a finger at him. “Act right.”
“Brat.” He says the word like he relishes it. “You want to keep me away from your precious Hercules? You could come play.”
“Pass.” She laughs in his face. “I’d rather chew off my arm.”
I tense, expecting him to… I don’t know. React badly. Puff up. Some guys take rejection like it’s a personal challenge. Tink might be my superior, but she’s still a woman who’s a good foot shorter than both of us. The Underworld’s security is too far away to step in if this goes sideways.
But Hook surprises me. He laughs, a great booming sound that turns heads around us. “One of these days, you’ll say yes.”
“Hold your breath. Please. It would leave more air for the rest of us.”
Another of those big laughs and Hook tips an imaginary hat to both of us. “Be seeing you.” He ambles off toward the other end of the bar.
Tink immediately turns to me and glares. “What the hell are you doing?”
“We were just talking.” I sound defensive, but I can’t help it.
“You were blushing when you were just talking with him and you’re blushing now.” She gives me a long look. “Hook is trouble.”
I gathered that from the file, but meeting him in person is something else altogether. “He’s more charming than I expected.”
“Yeah, he is. When he wants to be.” She pokes my chest with a single finger. “Go find Meg. It’s about time for the first part of your shift to be over, and I’m not going to be able to relax and enjoy myself if I’m worried about you doing something stupid.”
“Aw, Tink, I could almost believe you cared.”
She glares harder, but her bright red lips curve up a bit at the edges like she’s fighting a smile. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
She swats my arm. “Meg. Now.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I laugh a little at her responding curse and turn to survey the room. I know Meg is in here somewhere because I caught a glimpse of her earlier. She avoided me and I had drink orders to fill, so I haven’t hunted her down to talk. I still don’t know what I’m supposed to say. Hades gave an order, and I followed it. I don’t understand her feeling hurt over that, but maybe it’s all tied up in him more than it is in me. Either way, we have to talk about it,
and now’s as good a time as any.
I find her in a corner booth with a couple. I know these two too. Jafar and Jasmine. She’s the head of one of the territories in Carver City, and he’s her right-hand man and lover. Jafar has medium brown skin and a close-cropped beard, and he sits in the booth as if he owns the entire thing. His relaxed posture doesn’t cover up the predatory look in his dark eyes, but you’d have to be paying attention to notice it. He watches Meg and Jasmine, but seems content not to participate.
Jasmine is gorgeous in a flawless kind of way that makes me almost uncomfortable. I never would have the balls to walk up to her if we met under different circumstances. She’s got light brown skin and a mass of wavy dark brown hair. She’s sitting between Meg and Jafar, and leaning hard on Meg, her lips are parted and her breasts about to fall out of her tiny red dress with each ragged inhale. Even before I reach the table, I know what I’ll see, and sure enough, the proximity reveals Meg’s hand up her skirt.
Meg barely looks at me as she keeps finger-fucking Jasmine. “Hercules.”
I don’t know where to look. It seems rude to ogle the movement of Meg’s hand under the red fabric, but my gaze keeps dropping there despite myself. Meg makes it worse when she leans back and uses her free hand to tug down the top of Jasmine’s dress a little, just enough that I can see her brown nipples. I clear my throat and jerk my gaze up. Right to Jafar’s amused dark eyes. His lips quirk. “And they call me cruel.”
For a second, I think he’s talking to me, but Meg responds easily. “It’s because you’re a man. No matter what I do, they like to see me as nurturing.”